The Czech Republic currently holds the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Czech-In festival was founded on the occasion of the first Czech presidency, in 2009. It is therefore natural for us to recall this important event. The selection of films was inspired by the handover of the Presidency between France and the Czech Republic . The 8th edition will highlight the cultural dialogue between the two countries, looking at joint artistic projects and artists who have created or been inspired by the two countries. Hence, the programme consists mainly of Czech-French co-productions.
The real prelude to the festival will be a musical film Symfony Bizzare, directed by Michal Kocáb, the leader of the cult Czech band Pražský výběr. It is a full-length recording of their concert in the O2 Arena in Prague.
The festival will also provide an opportunity to discover the films of Christian Paigneau and Joël Farges, two French directors inspired by Czech cinema: the former taking a look at the Czechoslovak New Wave and the latter paying homage to Czech animator Jiří Trnka. The French tightrope walker Tatiana-Mosio Bongonga will present a documentary about her crossing of the Vltava River, filmed as part of the Letní Letná festival.
The audience will also have the opportunity to see one of the first French-Czech co-productions, the 1957 animated film The Creation of the World by Eduard Hofman. Visual art lovers will be delighted to discover the documentary on the life of the Czech surrealist painter Toyen, who lived and worked in France for 40 years. This film will close the festival on the National Day of the Czech Republic on 28 October at the Auditorium of the Hôtel de Ville de Paris in the presence of the director Andrea Sedláčková.
Ten selected films, mostly unreleased in France, by Václav Fletel and Jakub Voves, Tereza Brdečková, Ondřej Provazník and Martin Dušek, Jana Boková, Václav Kadrnka, Eduard Hofman, Roman Vávra and Bohdan Sláma, will be accompanied by a debate with filmmakers and other guests, with the aim of making contemporary Czech cinema better known to the Parisian public. The Czech-In festival will take place mainly the weekend of the 8th, 13th-16th, 21st-23rd October at the cinema Les 3 Luxembourg in Paris. Several satellite screenings are planned in November at the Czech language departments of INALCO and the Sorbonne.
The festival is part of the official programme of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, with the support of the City of Paris, which has awarded it the Label Paris Europe, and under the high patronage of the Government of the Czech Republic and the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to France, His Excellency Michal Fleischmann with his wife Kateřina Lojdová.
The full programme is available on the website: http://czech-in-film-festival.fr/page-festival-2022/
Contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
